What to Expect from the Trump-Kim Hanoi SummitI recently joined Professor Ramon Pardo of King's College London in an episode of his Korea Chair podcast to discuss what to expect from the February 2019 summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. We talked about possible concessions and how domestic political...

Stephan Haggard Q and A on the Singapore Summit and AftermathI recently did a short video Q and A on the Singapore summit for the East Asia Institute. I also reflected on the challenges ahead in my column at Joongang Ilbo . The main message: The summit itself produced little, and in fact the joint statement was dominated by North Korean views. President...

Stephan Haggard at Foreign Policy: How North Korea Could Strike It RichOne of President Donald Trump’s strategies for enticing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un into sweeping talks about scrapping his country’s nuclear arsenal has been to dangle an apparently unlikely promise of future prosperity. Kim’s poverty-stricken country, Trump said at a White House meeting last...

Psychology and International Relations: The Trump AdministrationBehavioral approaches rooted in economics and ultimately psychology are making a comeback in international relations. For those with access to the Cambridge Core, a special issue of International Organization edited by me and colleagues Emilie Hafner-Burton, David Lake, and David Victor surveys the...

Stephan Haggard and Mira-Rapp Hooper on the SummitThe Singapore summit was a test of President Trump's unpredictable and transactional approach to international negotiations. Just after the declaration dropped, Ben Wittes at Lawfare interviewed Stephan Haggard and Mira Rapp-Hooper, a senior fellow at Yale's Paul Tsai China Center, on the outcome...

Stephan Haggard and Mira Rapp-Hooper Preview the Summit on LawfareOnly a few months ago, President Donald Trump threatened to rain fire and fury on North Korea, and Kim Jong Un’s missiles were crashing into the ocean. Now, the president is preparing for a summit with the North Korean leader. To understand what to expect, Benjamin Wittes spoke on Friday to North...

Stephan Haggard on the Panmunjon DeclarationPessimism about the Trump-Kim summit abounds; Mark Landler's analysis at the New York Times is typical . But if this problem were easy it would have been solved long ago. The North-South summit didn’t actually achieve much because its various initiatives depend on progress on the nuclear issue. We...

Haggard on Sanctions at the Monkey CageIt looks like the United States and North Korea are actually talking, which should not be altogether surprising; it is not clear how you could have a summit without sherpas. And it also looks like North Korea has in fact conceded that denuclearization is also on agenda, which is also not surprising...

John Bolton: Surrender Is Not an OptionIf there were a prize for tendentious book title, John Bolton’s memoir Surrender Is Not an Option would be it. On the one side are those advocating surrender; on the other, Bolton. You choose! I did a review of Bolton’s book at the time he was being tapped by then Republican presidential candidate...

Stephan Haggard on the US–North Korea SummitWhile on pause, we are posting commentary that Marc Noland and Steph Haggard are writing on the peninsula. The latest edition is an analysis by Stephan Haggard of the proposed summit between the United States and North Korea . The decision on steel and aluminum tariffs and the decision to meet Kim...

Stephan Haggard on New Maritime SanctionsWhile on pause, we are posting commentary that Marc Noland and Steph Haggard are writing on the Korean peninsula. The latest edition is an analysis by Stephan Haggard at NK News on the new maritime sanctions. As sanctions tighten, ship-to-ship transfers and other forms of smuggling will go up, not...

Stephan Haggard on Vice President Pence in KoreaWhile on pause, we are posting commentary that Marc Noland and Steph Haggard are writing on the peninsula. The latest edition is an analysis by Stephan Haggard NKNews on Vice President Trump’s Olympic foray. Much of the coverage has been negative, and with some reason. But in the end, any US...

Stephan Haggard on Developmental StatesWhile on pause, we are posting commentary and new work by Marc Noland and Stephan Haggard on the Korean peninsula. Both of us cut our teeth on the political economy of the region, with Haggard's first book— Pathways from the Periphery —detailing the transition to export-led growth in the region and...

Haggard at NKNews on Expectations and the Diplomatic State of PlayWhile on pause, we are posting commentary that Marc Noland and Steph Haggard are writing on the peninsula. The latest edition is an analysis by Stephan Haggard at NKNews of the lack of attention to the parameters for possible talks, not only on the part of the United States but of China and South...